Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 22: Even if he stays out of contest for the presidential elections as he is asserting and hold no posts in the organisational set up, Congressmen can ill-afford to ignore Rahul Gandhi and going by it, the Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, if elected to the post, even if reluctantly, may have to give up the chair he fought for tooth and nail.
What emerged after Gehlot’s meeting with the party interim president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Wednesday, was virtually washed away by Rahul Gandhi on Thursday. While the party organisational secretary KC Venugopal on the “one man, one post” rule had said on Wednesday that it would be “applicable depending on who contests and wins,” giving some benefits of doubt to Gehlot who was keen to hold both the posts simultaneously, Rahul Gandhi left no one in doubt that whosoever it was, the rule would be applicable uniformly.
“We have made a commitment in Udaipur, I expect that the commitment will be maintained,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters in Kerala on the “one person, one post” rule and whether it would apply to Ashok Gehlot.
Responding to queries during a press conference held between the first and second leg of the day’s “Bharat Jodo Yatra,” Gandhi said the Congress president was not just an organisational position, it is an ideological post and a belief system. “What we decided at Udaipur, we expect that commitment to be maintained,” Gandhi said on being asked whether he would stand by the Udaipur chintan shivir decision on one-man, one-post rule of the party.
Gehlot, who was reluctant to give up chief ministership, which in that case would most likely would go to his arch enemy Sachin Pilot, had been maintaining all these days that the “one man, one post” rule was applicable only for the “nominated posts.” If elected, one person could hold “one, two or three posts simultaneously.” A staunch loyalist of Gandhis, Gehlot can no ignore Sonia Gandhi’s wish that he contest for the Congress president’s post.
Pilot spent the day with Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday walking with him on his “Bharat Jodo Yatra” in Kerala, and flew out this morning, hours before Gehlot’s arrival.
Gehlot said he would try “one last time” to persuade Rahul Gandhi to return as Congress president before filing his papers on Monday for the October 17 election. But Gandhi at the press meet gave clear indication that there was no change in his stand not to take back the mantle of the party.
Asked what he would tell the next party chief, Mr Gandhi said: “My advice would be whoever becomes Congress president should remember he represents a set of ideas, a belief system, the vision of India.” Another piece of advice he had for the contestants in the party’s presidential polls was that “you are taking a historic position. A position that defines and has defined a particular view of India. The post of Congress president is not just an organisational post but represent a whole ideology,” he said.
The Congress, meanwhile, on Thursday officially the process of electing a new chief with two names almost certain in the contest – Ashok Gehlot and Shashi Tharoor. More names have emerged for the party’s first election in over 20 years without any Gandhi as the default choice for president.
Former Union Minister Manish Tewari and former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh have also indicated that they might contest for the post. Shashi Tharoor was the first to declare his intention to fight for the post to Sonia Gandhi, who took over as interim chief when her son Rahul Gandhi quit in 2019 over serial election defeats.
But even as Sonia Gandhi assured Tharoor that she would not take sides and allow a “free and fair” election for the post, the Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh on Thursday backed Gehlot as “a better candidate” than Shashi Tharoor for the party’s top post, saying the two cannot even be compared.
He said Rahul Gandhi is the first choice for Congress workers for the post while listing Gehlot’s experience including as a former Union minister, who defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party in a direct contest in the 2018 Rajasthan elections. He said Gehlot has had 45 years of impeccable political life.
He said Tharoor’s only major contribution to the party in the last eight years was sending letters to Congress President Sonia Gandhi when she was hospitalised. “This act caused pain to crores of party workers like me. Thus, the selection is very simple and clear,” he tweeted while clarifying it was his individual opinion. Tharoor was among the leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking sweeping reforms within the party.